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2013 Summer Solstice: Night at the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture

Celebrate the longest day of the year with dance by La Piñata and Red Herring Morris Dancers, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, hands-on activities, and free admission to the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture (Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Harvard Semitic Museum) on Friday, June 21, 2013 from 5:00-9:00 pm. Meet on the Plaza in front of the Harvard Science Center, One Oxford Street, Cambridge.

Watch and dance with the Red Herring Morris as they perform seasonal English ritual dances and erect a Solstice May pole ( performances at 5:00 and 7:00 pm)

See traditional Aztec dances performed by La Piñata youth, as they celebrate the Solstice with indigenous, folkloric, Latin American music and dance (6:00 pm)

Hear the Yarina trio (which means “remembrance” in the native Quichua language of the Incas) evoke the hauntingly beautiful music of the Ecuadorian Andes while incorporating jazz, blues, Latin, and Western classical music; listen to a sample (7:45 pm)

Kids can learn all about the stars inside the Starlab Portable planetarium (20-minute shows, every half hour throughout the evening)

Be part of a human sundial and tell time by your own shadow

Test a Viking sunstone—learn how the Vikings navigated even on a cloudy day using polarizing crystals

Enjoy rare public access to the roof deck observatory of the Harvard Science Center for solar–telescope viewing of the fading sun on its longest day—and enjoy a unique vista of the Cambridge and the Boston skyline

Shop at all the Museum gift shops with a 20% off sale. (Excludes books at the Peabody Museum and non-sale items)

Entertainment begins at 5:15 pm. All HMSC museums will offer free admission and extended hours until 9:00 pm. See the new exhibition Time and Time Again at the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments; the newly renovated Earth & Planetary Sciences exhibition at the Harvard Museum of Natural History; Stephen Dupont photographs of Papua New Guinea at the Peabody Museum, or a recreated ancient Israelite house at the Harvard Semitic Museum.